The 2003 Dodge/Save Mart 350

Mark was able to pick up five places in the last 19 laps of Sunday’s Dodge/Save Mart 350 to post a 19th place finish Running at Infineon

and put an end to a day that just never quite came together for the veteran driver and the No. 6 Viagra® Racing Team. The No. 6 crew had hoped for a better finish in its first road-course race of the season, but in the end found itself fighting for every position.

The No. 6 Viagra® Ford Taurus started the race handling tight and with the car ‘pushing really badly’ Mark struggled from the green flag and quickly fell back to 21st position on the first lap after getting tangled up with another car. The first lap would appear to set the tone for the day.

"We got in an accident on the first lap and it knocked the front-end out of line a little bit, so we just had a hard day's work in front of us there,” said Mark.

Mark had worked his way back up to 19th place on lap 58 before getting hit by the No. 42 car and taking on slight damage.

“We got spun out again, after we worked our way back up –decently – to the middle of the pack, and we got spun out, so that didn't help us, either,” added Mark.

The team came into the pits to take on four tires and fuel, make adjustments to improve the car’s handling and work on the damage sustained in the accident. Mark returned to the field in 35th position, once the field went green on lap 61.

A multi-car accident on lap 65, allowed Mark to move from 29th to 14th position by lap 68. After the day’s sixth caution, the team came into the pits to top-off the fuel, in hopes that the race would go green for the remaining laps, as Mark would have been one of only a few cars that could have finished the race without pitting.

The day’s seventh caution on lap 88 would pit an end to that strategy and Mark came into the pits to take on four fresh tires and fuel. Mark returned to the field in 24th place when the field went green with 19 laps to go.

Mark was able to move up the field to 19th place, securing the top-20 finish. Mark is currently 12th in the Winston Cup Point standings, 46 points outside of 10th place.

“Everybody kept working all day and we never gave up,” said Mark after the race. “But we just didn’t have it today and I guess there just wasn’t a lot we could do about it.”

Next week NASCAR takes its final off-weekend of the season, before returning to action in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway.